a manly contempt for pain, and a bold handling of a danger. If the
cricket ball were a soft affair, it would be a game for babies not boys.

Let us then take a hint from the sporting world, and turn to the use of
the many that which has formed the only redeeming feature of a few. The
good that these manly games do, should not be confined to a small class,
but should be diffused among the whole community, for the sporting world
has something to say to all of us. It rouses the scholar from his desk,
shakes him, and tells him that much study is a weariness to the flesh,
and that the fields are alive with song. Out then he must come, and
leave his musty books.

It comes to the business man in the crowded city, and babbles of green
fields, nudges Mr. Sparrowgrass with its elbow, and tells him to take
Mrs. S. and the children into the country.

It comes to Mr. Fezziwig at Christmas time, and tells him to let the
young men in his shop have a jolly time of it, put by their work, listen
to the fiddle, and join the dance.

Ay, and the dream of those half-forgotten days comes over Scrooge, the
miserly, miserable Scrooge, and wakes up something like a soul in him.

It comes to Colonel Newcome, and bids him go to Charter House School,
and take his boy out for a holiday.

This same spirit came to the ancient Greek in drama, dance and game, and
with him was set to music, and consecrated to the gods, to Apollo the
ever young, to Pallas the wise, to Bacchus the joy-giver.